A Series of Improbable Events 3: Shifting the Focus
by ErykahMiszti
Summary: The story about Joss and Donna had to hit the press eventually.


Donna wandered into Josh's study to find him asleep, slumped over the desk. She smiled affectionately down at him. They'd moved into the new house a month ago and had added getting the place fixed up to their already full schedules. He'd been doing his thing of burning the candle from both ends, and trying to settle into a new routine at the same time. It wasn't a surprise to find him flaked out in here. She could see her new routine would now involve often treading this path to wake him and remind him that they had a real bed, and how fun it was to share it

It was a bit easier for her. Her schedule was full - Helen had her sights focused on helping the homeless at the moment - but not as crisis driven as his often turned out to be. She had worried the regular absences his job required would mean they'd see a lot less of each other. It did, but mostly because they'd spent so much time in their lives living in each other's pockets. In truth they probably spent more time together than most working couples. The fact that she could walk into the West Wing any time she liked definitely helped. Although she didn't like to hang around his office too much, not just because she didn't want to get in the way of his job, but because she didn't want to get in Margaret's way. If it wasn't directly work related, then she was a late night visitor; quietly doing her reading on his couch or being a sounding board if he needed one when most people had gone home.

Donna looked around at what he'd achieved in here. It was cosy; kinda traditional but with all the latest gadgets subtly built in so he could keep in constant touch with everything in the outside world. It was lined with books, a couch, and there was a mess of papers already. She picked his phone up off the floor where he'd dropped it and put it back on the desk next to him. Automatically she started gathering papers up, before she realised what she was doing and put them back down again. Old habits died hard.

She looked up then, amused, at the messy, overstuffed gallery wall he'd created above his desk. Here were framed photos that told the story of his life. His family. Him and his sister. His university years. Photos from the campaign trails. From the White House. Him and Leo. Him, grinning, with Mike Piazza. A triptych with the cutest of their wedding photos; ones not posed, but that they'd taken themselves, hamming it up at the camera. But in the centre, in pride of place, a cover from Time Magazine.

It showed the two of them, standing back to back, with the headline "Washington's Power Couple" and underneath "The power behind the thrones". This cover was the moment when everything became perfectly okay, and she was filled with love at seeing the place he'd given it.

They'd been expecting the story to come out at some point and were even surprised by how long it took. They hadn't tried that hard to hide it, although they didn't advertise it either.

People were so used to seeing Josh and Donna out at events and just sparring cutely around together that they didn't question it, besides they were together everywhere that the President and First Lady were together. It was all so new and surprising to the both of them that they didn't really want to label it by inviting other people in just yet. They just wanted to live it. They never did have the talk. They never felt as if they needed to.

During and after Hawaii, they just let it be whatever it was. They just enjoyed being together. There was mind blowing sex, incredible companionship and lot of politics, but there were no big declarations of anything.

Some people knew - the folks who'd worked closely with them on the campaign, and Sam, Toby, CJ, Helen and Matt - but, for once, they held off on the teasing, waiting for them to be ready to make it more obvious that they were together. They both just looked happy, and no one wanted to disturb that.

Plus - of course - it was the first 100 Days, and they all had other things to worry about. The small matter of a country to run. Whatever was going on with Josh and Donna was the lowest item on the agenda.

Everything changed, very early one morning, with one lingering kiss on a doorstep. One camera. One photo.

They knew it might be a thing. They were the Chiefs of Staff at the White House with an ill-defined romantic relationship. What they didn't expect was the viciousness of the attacks on them.

For a week the press squeezed the juiciest bits out of their story, ran with the most salacious rumours and, with Republican prompting, twisted it to make them out to be immoral, inappropriate, a licentious stain on the nation… and to opportunistically call for their resignations. Josh took licks, being cast as a predatory boss chasing his secretary around his desk, but Donna took the worst, being portrayed as an uneducated bimbo using sex to get ahead. The madness of it was that both of them were being made out to be both the user and the used, depending on who was talking.

Sam and Toby came over to Josh's place towards the end of that week to offer moral support. They brought pizzas and beer. They'd had to run the gauntlet of the reporters camped on the doorstep. They'd kept the beer hidden.

"They'll move on from you guys soon." Sam reassured them.

"You think so?" Donna asked, unsure.

"No." He answered flatly. "Given that they can't attack the Santos' for it - since they're a family so perfectly formed that they look like they've come from a magazine photo shoot - you're the perfect proxy to attack the family values of the White House. Republicans could be dining out on you two for months."

"But we haven't anything wrong." Donna stated.

"You think they care about that?" Toby asked.

"It doesn't even matter if they do know that. That's not what they're going to say. This is retribution for the legislation we've been pushing. No one cared about you guys getting together until we started hammering them in Congress. This isn't a coincidence. You know the rules of this. It's not personal."

Josh just pursed his lips and muttered something nasty under his breath.

"So we just ignore it," Donna asked, frustrated. "And let them say what they like?!"

"No, we keep doing what we've been doing." Sam said firmly. "The White House can't comment and," He looked at Donna. "We can't put you on air because they'll have too much fun attacking you in person," He looked squarely at Josh. "And YOU, especially, should say NOTHING to the press."

They shared a pointed look. Josh thought about arguing but changed his mind.

"But we can keep getting talking heads on every show to counter every one of their talking heads. Somehow we need to shift the focus."

"We could leak email conversations between you two. Prove that it was just a working relationship all those years." Toby suggested, with mind-boggling naiveté.

Josh and Donna just looked warily at each other.

Sam sighed and all eyes went to him.

"That thing you guys do." He said with a wince. "It's going to look flirting."

"It was flirting Sam." Josh admitted.

Donna reached over and took his hand, and he looked back at her. They leant in for a brief supportive kiss.

Toby and Sam watched them with raised eyebrows, and then looked at each other.

"Weird." Sam said.

"Yeah." Toby acknowledged.

Donna and Josh realised that it was actually the first time they'd done that in front of their friends.

A little embarrassed, she got to her feet.

"I need another drink." She announced. "Anyone else?"

Everyone nodded their agreement.

"No more for you, Josh." She stated.

He protested but she just smiled as she left the room.

"How's she holding up?" Toby asked as soon as she was gone.

"She puts a good face on it, but, not good." He raked a hand through his hair. "They're calling her a whore, Toby. It feels personal. How do we stop it?"

"Did anything ever actually happen between you two while you were at the White House last time?" Sam asked.

"No!" Josh insisted. "Sam..!"

"Josh, if we going to help you have be straight with us. No surprises." He told him. "We need a story for the press. One that will hold."

"You've always said she basically made herself your assistant during the campaign. Now that sounds bad. It sounds like she attached herself to you." Toby commented.

"It wasn't like that!" Josh insisted.

"If people ask you why you hired her, you can't tell that story." Toby said.

Josh thought about how many people he'd told that story to over the years and winced. It'd been a funny story once!

"Yeah, the cat's probably out of the bag on that one." He acknowledged.

"We always figured she was in love with you…" Sam began, frowning.

"Why else would she put up with you." Toby interjected.

"Thanks Toby." Josh took the hit.

"…but Josh, when DID you fall in love with Donna?" Sam finished.

None of the men noticed that Donna had returned. She stood frozen in the doorway holding the beer bottles.

"When did I know?" He asked, biting his lip, addressing the ceiling. "Now that I think about it..." There was a long pause. "The day she left." He told the floor.

"After Germany?" Toby leant forward to ask.

There was another, longer pause.

"No." He said finally, wincing and rubbing his temple, not meeting their eyes. "During the…" He drew in a breath, exhaled sharply and finished quickly. Sam had asked for honesty. "...first Bartlet campaign."

Toby flopped back and let his head thump, hard, on the back of his chair.

"Is that why you took her back Josh?" Sam asked seriously.

"No!" He insisted. "No. She was good at her job, Sam. No one could manage the way I work like she could. And she's so smart! You guys worked with her for years too. Did you ever think that she couldn't keep up with us? She didn't finish college, Sam, but she could keep up with all of us!" He sighed.

"I took her back, and I kept her with me, because she was the best and she deserved to be there, in the White House, with us. I didn't bring her with us because I loved her. I tried very hard to forget that did. She was my friend, Sam. Above everything, she was my friend. I love her because how could I could not fall love with her. But, even if I'd never gotten to be with her - seeing how much she's done, how much far she's come - I'd still never regret bringing her with us."

There was a clatter of breaking glass as the bottles dropped from Donna's hand. The men all turned to stare at her, but she walked confidently straight over to Josh, took his face in her hands and kissed him.

"That's our cue to leave." Toby said, standing up.

Him and Sam took another look at the still kissing couple, then walked out. They never even noticed them go.

"That's a heck of thing." Sam marvelled once they were out of the room.

"Makes you think they deserve to be happy." Toby agreed.

"I've got an idea." Sam said suddenly. "Forget all the other talking heads. We just need CJ."

They finally came up for air and, laughing, realised Toby and Sam had gone. Then an unavoidable seriousness fell over them. Here it was suddenly; the talk that they hadn't been sure they were ever going to have.

"Did you mean it?" She asked nervously into the silence that had fallen.

He smiled uneasily. Funny, it had been easier to talk to Toby and Sam than it was to say it to her.

"You think I'm the best?" She continued perkily, with a smile that morphed into a grin.

He was relieved that that was the tack she was taking. Not the other thing. The big word thing. He reached out to stroke her cheek.

"Yeah." He said on an exhaled breath, smiling.

"Oh Josh." She smiled tenderly, leaned in again and kissed him.

The kiss almost chaste and she pulled back almost immediately. She sat up straight again. Their hands were now tangled together between them, playing, fingers sliding caressingly over fingers, and they both looked down, watching them.

"And you love me." She said it matter of fact, before looking up at him from under her lashes.

Their eyes met.

He swallowed hard and licked his lips. He looked back down at their hands, still tangled together.

"I love you too." She said in the same matter of fact tone.

He looked sharply back at her.

"If that makes it any easier?" She smiled reassuringly.

"You do?" He asked. Something inside him felt like it was gonna bust open with happiness.

She nodded, smiling. There was a long moment where no one said anything.

"And now, you say…" She prompted gently, teasingly.

He just looked at her and blinked. He was working up to it... It was a big moment. He had to say it right. It needed the right tone. The right infection to cover a decade's worth of being not said.

She got fed up waiting.

"Oh come on Josh, just say it." She ordered petulantly, breaking the spell.

"Donna!" He protested.

"Say it." She insisted and turned away to sing-song it at the empty room. "Say it… Say it… Say it…"

She finally annoyed him enough.

"I love you." He announced, determinedly. "Now, just shut up already!"

She turned quickly to face him.

"You do?" She asked hopefully.

"Oh for the love of..!" He exclaimed, but then looked back at her face. He smiled. "You!"

They kissed tenderly again and sat back to gaze at each other smiling, amused at themselves and how they'd screwed this up.

"Now we never need to say it again." She stated.

"Fine by me!" He agreed. "That was like pulling teeth! Honestly, woman! Say it! Say it! Say it! Where's the romance?"

"Where's the romance Joshua?! You just compared it to pulling teeth! That's not exactly the stuff of my girlish dreams!"

He grabbed her, pulled her down and lay on top of her.

"Just shut up already." He said softly, smiling, meaning I love you.

"Okay." She agreed back up at him, her eyes saying it back.

And they sank down into the couch.

They'd watched at home, curled up together on the couch, grimacing as Senator Stevens gleefully – but pretending to occupy a moral high ground - repeated all the nastiest talking points. He questioned their values, their morality, and their work ethic. CJ sat there placidly through it all until he'd finished. Then she leant forward; slowly and deliberately.

"Have you ever been in love Senator?" She asked calmly.

His eyes widened and he spluttered "Of course."

"Then you'll know what a strange but incredibly special thing it can be. How precious it is but how its timing can so often be just flat out inconvenient for any number of reasons."

He spluttered some more about that not being the point.

"No." CJ cut him down. "It's exactly the point. You're taking something precious and personal between two people and turning it into political point scoring. You're taking one of the, frankly, sappiest love stories I've ever witnessed and trying to turn it into a sordid little sex scandal, that you claim should cost them their jobs!"

Josh buried his head his hands at this point. "Sappiest?!" His voice was a high pitch squeal. "You're killing me CJ! Leave me some dignity!"

Donna had just smiled.

CJ was nowhere near done.

"You've questioned their morals, their values and their integrity. You very obviously don't know Josh Lyman and Donna Moss, Senator. We're not talking here about two flighty people who met and jumped into bed together."

"Are you sure she knows you?" Donna asked frowning. The look Josh shot her promised retribution later.

"They have so many morals, values and so much integrity…"

"Just saying, it doesn't sound like you." Donna added.

He hit her with a throw pillow.

"…that they spent 7 years working closely together and didn't act on their feelings, becoming instead good friends, and incredibly efficient working partners, who, with their passion for making this country a better place, have made a real impact and difference on how this country is governed. They have so many morals, such strong values and so much integrity that they almost lost out on the chance of true happiness together, because they knew that people - like you Senator - might use their honest and true feelings for each other as political point scoring against a cause they wholeheartedly believe in."

They missed most of this bit due to the pillow fight.

"Ms Cregg, really? Honest and true feelings?! Are you seriously expecting us to believe they were that in love and never acted on it? Are you seriously saying we should ignore Donna Moss starting out with no qualifications and sleeping her way to high office, because… 'true love'?!"

CJ took it far more calmly than Josh did at home. The fun had stopped abruptly and they waited for CJ's response.

"Senator, are you really saying that Josh Lyman, as Deputy Chief of Staff at the White House, would keep someone in his employ for all that time if she couldn't do the job? Are you seriously saying that President Santos would have her working as the public face of his election campaign because she was sleeping with his political director? Are you seriously saying the First Lady would employ that woman as her Chief of Staff?"

"I'm just saying that it looks suspiciously like…"

And CJ relaxed back in her chair.

Josh was bouncing on the couch now shouting: "Take him down CJ! Take him down!"

"Senator, I know exactly what you're saying. You're saying that you think a woman like Donna Moss, an intelligent and hard working woman but someone who didn't get the breaks in life that some of us did, can't get ahead in Washington, except by her sleeping with her boss." She took a deep breath and looked disapproving. "Which, with respect Senator, somewhat makes me question both YOUR morality, and whether you really believe that we live in a meritocracy where raw talent and hard work gets seen and rewarded, especially with regards to women."

Josh punched the air.

Stevens paled. "Now really Ms Cregg, I…"

She moved in for the kill. It was time to change the story.

"And are you really so cynical that you genuinely believe that sordid story you've been peddling for the last week, over the idea that two intelligent people might choose to ignore an attraction between them for rational, sensible reasons but, over time, despite themselves, fall beautifully, spectacularly in love?" She looked squarely at him. "Who exactly are Josh Lyman and Donna Moss hurting by having fallen in love, Senator? And why would you think their being in love makes them incapable of doing their jobs to the best and fullest capacity, when they've already proven that it doesn't?"

And with that, the story shifted. Josh and Donna's phones started ringing.

"I have Time magazine on the line." Bonnie began with her smile evident in her voice. "They want to do a joint interview with Washington's hottest couple!"

Donna broke into a grin.

"I have Hello! magazine on the line." Margaret began with her smile evident in her voice. "They want to cover the wedding!"

Josh froze and went very pale indeed.


End file.
